Discovering Sherlock Holmes - A Community Reading Project From Stanford University

The Temple, with its New Law Courts, can be seen at the bottom of the map

"One other question," said he. "Was the photograph a cabinet?"
A cabinet photograph was meant for framed display, and was roughly equivalent to a 4x6 photograph today. Holmes seems to be wondering how easily the photograph in question could have been concealed.

"I soon found Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock to the door."
Bijou means "jewel" in French, and implies that the villa was small but well-appointed. The Chubb lock, patented in 1818, was advertised as unpickable. The company exists today.

"I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the garden."
A mews is an urban alleyway with stables facing on it, away from the main street.

"I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two fills of shag tobaccoÉ."
"Ostlers" are stablehands. "Half and half" is a drink composed half of porter or stout and half of lighter beer or ale. "Shag tobacco," Holmes's favorite when he has a problem to solve, is a crude, strong tobacco with a high nicotine content.

A typical hansom cab outside
the Albert Hall

"Éor turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the Temple."
Occupied by the Knights Templar until their disbanding in the early 14th century, the Temple Church gave its name to the surrounding area, which has served as the legal center of London for seven hundred years. Since Godfrey Norton was a lawyer, he would have had rooms at one of the Inns of Court at the Temple.

"Éa hansom cabÉ"
A hansom was a two-wheeled cab for hire, pulled by one horse.

"'Drive like the devil,' he shouted, Ôfirst to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road.'"
Both Gross & Hankey (presumably a jeweler's shop) and St. Monica's Church are fictional places, although the streets are real.